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Feeling Apologetic

Editor:

My deep and sincere apologies to Ms. Drabkin, and any other NCJ readers who took offense to my recent letter to the editor ("Letters," June 26). I did not, in any way, intend to belittle, deny or diminish the suffering that Jewish people have endured historically, or the prejudice and persecution against them that persists to this day, nor did I, in my letter, say anything to that effect. As I clearly stated in my letter, it was hyperbole in the extreme to compare the persecution and prejudice that medical marijuana patients have suffered and continue to endure, to the terrible history of anti-semitism, torture and wholesale slaughter perpetrated against Jewish people.

However, millions of medical marijuana patients have been arrested and thrown in jail, where some of them have died as a direct result of being denied their medicine. Millions more medical marijuana patients have been denied jobs, thrown out of schools and/or lost their homes, because they use marijuana medicinally. Today, despite an ongoing, decades long, battle to legalize medical marijuana, strong social prejudices against medical marijuana patients persist, as clearly demonstrated by both the complaints from Willow Creek residents, and NCJ writer Thadeus Greenson, who compared medical marijuana patients to oil company executives ("Behind the Brown Act," May 8), a comparison I found terribly offensive, and it was that absurd and ridiculous level of hyperbole that I sought to match.

No, medical marijuana patients have not suffered the horrors that the Jewish people have endured, but we have suffered enough. It is time to recognize the War on Drugs for the heinous crime against humanity that it is, and to bring this ugly chapter in American history to an end.